[Bug 848] New: Content Negotiation (or MIME Types)

http://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=848

           Summary: Content Negotiation (or MIME Types)
           Product: Validator
           Version: 0.6.7
          Platform: All
               URL: http://www.st-minutiae.com/
        OS/Version: All
            Status: NEW
          Severity: enhancement
          Priority: P5
         Component: check
        AssignedTo: link@pobox.com
        ReportedBy: minutiaeman@st-minutiae.com
         QAContact: www-validator-cvs@w3.org
                CC: minutiaeman@st-minutiae.com


Because a large number of user agents are unable to properly handle the "application/xhtml+xml" 
MIME type with which XHTML pages *should* be served, I have configured my server to serve my 
website's XHTML 1.1 pages as "text/html" by default, and, if the user agent identifies itself as 
capable of understanding the format (via the HTTP_ACCEPT header), it will change the MIME type 
and serve it as "application/xhtml+xml" instead.

I use the method described at the end of this article (via .htaccess scripts):
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2003/03/19/dive-into-xml.html

However, I have noticed that the W3C Validator does not provide any sort of content negotiation via 
the HTTP_ACCEPT header.  This is a relatively trivial issue, but perhaps it would be a good idea to 
configure the validator to announce what types of files it will accept, so that servers will serve it 
XHTML files using the proper MIME type when possible?



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Received on Wednesday, 25 August 2004 16:50:12 UTC